Oceans Garden
by Ron Roneando
Summary: This story takes place before the league existed, when Zyra had just become human-like. She left her jungle and then, all of her old problems vanished, only to be substituted with much more human problems.


Well hello there to all of you who are reading this! Thanks so much for taking your time in reading my story, and I really hope you enjoy it. As for the matter this is the first chapter. And this is my first fanfic! Also, English is not my first language, so please correct me if I'm wrong. Enjoy!

* * *

The moonlight bathed the jungle with a delightful pale blue tonality, there was no sound to be heard for miles, no living things besides plants, not a single trace of consciousness in that vast wilderness. Yet besides all that deadly calm, there was something, something barely conscious and alive, fighting for a last opportunity for a race so long forgotten, so long unfed. Oh, the hunger was terrible for this being, a plant, the last alive, connected with the rest of the forest, but not for long, it was the last one of a powerful race who once was the apex predator of the jungle, killing for sport and food. But now, unnourished, alone, and powerless, it was bond to die.

~Crack~

That sound echoed through the entire jungle, the sound of a broken branch by something, something alive, suddenly it all became blurry for the plant, the thrill of the hunt was on, and it had just one chance to get his maybe, last meal. Coming closer, crawling, it hide up a tree, watching in the light as a young woman, covered in a black cloak was standing there, still, writing on a small book in front of a pond. The plant conjured its last remnant of magic just to pull one trick, and then vines emerged from below the woman covering her with them, strangling them and inserting in her mouth, deep into his throat and stomach the plant laid her final spell.

A few hours later the woman opened her eyes, the blueness of those had now disappeared only to be changed for bright yellowish ones. Her hair had turned red, and his skin had acquired a slightly yellow tone. She woke up full conscious, but different, she was not anymore that woman, now something different was born. The last one of his species, now could have a new life. A different one, unaware of how the living moved, she tried to crawl, unsuccessfully, as she scratched her cloak, ravaging it on his first attempts at moving while crawling.

She felt pain, and watched as his purple blood started to pour from one of the scratches caused by the vines, it was a weird feeling for her, the first time she felt something like that. It was a horribly vivid experience, she loved it and hated it at the same time. Then, a mixture of memories stuck her mind, not only hers as a plant, but some of those who once belonged to the woman, her name, Zyra, her habits, and those more basic allowed the now human plant to learn how was talking, moving, and using magic on a human body.

"I-I… Am… Zyra…" Her voice surprised her, it was seductive, tempting, different from what of the human in the memories was. It had a predatory pitch, barely noticeable, she actually enjoyed it.

She stopped trying to crawl, as it was unsuccessful at the very least, and started to learn how to walk properly. Only then, she found something that gave her a chill down her spine, the carcass of what once was her, now she could see herself as a plant, with its weaknesses, her bad state and his mostly decaying look, she wrinkled her nose at that sight.

"I will never forget who I am… I have a duty; my children will bloom all over the world… But they will be like me, not a death sentenced plant." She stated to herself, as a promise of an imprecise future, yet so desirable for her.

Over the next days, Zyra learned how to channel her magic, how to summon plants at her will, how to manipulate the vines and create them, and most important, how to look like a human being. She didn't want to notice her as something different at first sight, she was fully aware of what humans could do, thanks to those memories that now belonged to her. She took full consciousness of her body, despite being yellowish, she was thin, with voluptuous curves, and a very delicate face, pretty much everyone could say she was like an angel by her looks, but she was rather a demon than an angel, her body, not only covered by the cloak but also with leaves all over her most vulnerable lady parts, and some vines were wrapped around her arms constantly, like a snake, protecting her.

It was then, when she decided to leave her home, her jungle, it was a pitiful place now that she was a human, she needed to make progresses on her plan, to become the mother of a new race, to expand a deadly bloom among those who oppose her and nourish from them to create more like her. She walked through the jungle easily, half running, feeling an ecstasy while doing so, the wind flowing through her cloak, and stroking her skin was a delightful feeling, the smells so tempting, and on the far distance she could see the sea, bright, with a radiant sun as she had never seen before covering everything with a golden appearance that made everything much more beautiful, warm, and overall promising./p

She stood there, on the beach, alone, and played with the sand with her feet for a while as a child would do, she took off her cloak, exposing her body to the sun and the sea, and carefully started to walk towards the ocean, feeling the cold water on her body, it gave her goosebumps but she loved it, she learned to swim pretty fast, and then she saw something amazing, something she surprised her and scared at the same time. She narrowed her eyes inspecting the distant vessel, she could barely see something written in its side "Dead Pool" and then she heard a noise, like the thunders she used to hear in the jungle, only this one was stronger, and more menacing. A cannon was fired towards the jungle.

The vessel veered towards the beach at which she was.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck…" Said her, it was probably all she could say, and ran towards the beach out of the ocean as the ship came closer.

She got her cloak and covered her body with it, just in time to see a few pirates jump from the ship and start to run in her direction, she remained calm, but started to shake for a bit, only to cause an impression, of course. Little those pirates knew who they had stepped upon, Zyra waited patiently and started to cry as best as she could, faking everything just to get to the hearts of the pirates.

"I… I… I need help… Please…" She begged for some help she didn't really need, all she did need was a ship to get her somewhere with more people, she craved to know how humans lived, how were they in their habitat, and how they behaved.

"Ye' lass just found'erself wit a bunch o'mercy sailors" Said a rough voice behind the pirates who ran at her first, it was a big man, with a tanned skin, and looked all cocky with a sword on his wrist and a gun on his hand. He gave her a dark grin as she looked at his eyes.

"Please… My ship sunk… I'm the last survivor… I need help…" Said Zyra, as she kept crying.

"Ye calm down or I'll strangle ye wit ma own hand right now, got'me lass? What yerr name?" The pirate smelt like a barrel of rum, and was obviously to intoxicated to speak correctly, or so she thought as she could barely understand him.

"I am Zyra… Please… Take me to the civilization… This place is haunted… The plants are alive… They ate the crew of the ship and I barely escaped…" Then she realized she was good at making things up right out of nowhere, she invented that story, and tried to look vulnerable.

"Eeeeeven betta, doll, I'll take ye wit ma crew to Bilgewater, ma name Captain Gangplank, ye betta remember it, but a trip like ye ask fo' needs a payment n' I see no belongings wit ye" He smiled again, with that shade of darkness on it.

"I promise… I'll owe you one… You just have to ask for it…" She said, trying to persuade him into a future deal, he might never get fulfilled.

"Deals'a deal lass. Ye'll pay me once we arrive, meantime, I'll get ye a place on ma vessel, see Captain Gangplank is a good man after all" In his mind there was already a plan, she'll force her to pay him with a task even himself didn't wanted to do. "Ye ma crew let us set sails! Ha! To Bilgewater ye salty dogs!"

The crew on land hauled him, and went back to the ship with Zyra and their captain. The ship was enormous, a three masted behemoth capable of enduring even the worst storm in the middle of the ocean. It had cannons all over its flanks, and a especially big one in the front part, inside what seemed to be a carved monster mouth, it was a terrifying ship, doubtless.

It took them three days to get to Bilgewater, three days in which Zyra didn't left her cabin, she spent the time practicing her magic, and conjuring plants, which rapidly vanished at her command. The sea was inclement with the vessel, and sometimes something bumped with the lower part of the ship, she heard the pirates calling out that those were monsters, although she didn't believe them fully, she admitted that maybe they were right.

On the third day, she emerged from her cabin, just to take a look at Bilgewater, the city was getting closer, and with it, her master plan, but it wasn't the only one coming closer, Gangplank stepped on her way with a grin on his face./p

"We had a deal, dolly, ye have to do me a favor." She answered with a nod and a smile, calm. "Ye have to go to the Serpent Temple, n'ask for Illaoi, the Truth Bearer. Gotcha? Tell'er ol'Gangplank is in town and needs a favor or two, if ye get me" He laughed.

She rolled her eyes as a response, she had very few patience, but knew that she wasn't in the position to show her real nature, yet.

"Okay, I will try my best to convince her to fall for your… Hmmm… Charm, maybe." She answered a little bit ironical. Gangplank laughed even harder at that, and the crew, unknowing why, started to laugh as his captain did. _Just pirate things... I guess..._ Thought Zyra.

They arrived to Bilgewater, the port city of the isles, the first thing she noticed was the smell, a dense smell like the one produced by a sewer, the water, instead of pure and crystalline looked dense, heavily contaminated by dead bodies, wastes and decomposing organic matter. A small band of seagulls flew over the ship as it made its arrival to the docks. The crew started to jump from the ship and into solid ground. She do as they did, and watched the city in awe, it was beautiful despite the contamination, the docks were ornamented with carvings of what seemed to be a monster, little she knew it was Tahm Kench's carvings.

She overheard some pirates talking and she got the name of the place they were at, it was called the Slaughter Docks, and it was pretty obvious why, Zyra saw as a group of sailors carried a big monstrosity behind their ship, it was covered with fins and scales, it had tentacles and a mouth full of big teeth, the small ship got to the docks and attached the monstrosity to a big hook, pulling it up out of the water, it was clear that said thing was dead. Zyra could only smile at that decaying beauty, it was her kind of likes.

The city itself was formed by wooden buildings, some bigger than the others, but all of them were similar, their metallic parts were rusted, the wooden ones were humid and bigger than what they were supposed to, at some places there was moss covering the lower parts of the buildings, rotting them. It was a beautiful, not the kind of beauty that one may like, but Zyra loved it, the aesthetics of this rotten city getting slowly consumed by humidity, plants and the sun.

It wasn't the best place to be, that was for sure, Bilgewater was known to be a criminal nest, home of bounty hunters, pirates, scammers, and such. But it was all she could ever dream for as a plant, a place to start again, to begin with her plan.

But first, she had to return a favor…


End file.
